marcsunnyharpermargo: October 2015

Ai Rabu Chizu

One of the lingering effects of studying Japanese and living in Japan has not been an ability to speak Japanese. But rather an ability to speak English with a Japanese accent. It is one of my favorite things to do. And cheese happens to be one of those Japanese/English words that's so fun to say.

Crystal took us blueberry picking another day.

Voodoo Donuts

Crystal drove us into Portland several times. One of those times we stopped at Voodoo Donuts and sampled their wares.

Whose is Whose? Clockwise starting top left: 1. Lemon Chiffon crueller; 2. Voodoo Bubble Donut; 3. Mexican Hot Chocolate; 4. The Loop Donut (answers below)

The signature Voodoo donut


Balancing a donut on one's fingertips never ends well. This picture was taken right before Harper's donut ended up on the ground.

1. Marc always gets cruellers; 2. Harper loves bubblegum / bubblegum flavors; 3. I like classic cake donuts covered in sugar; 4. Margo loves sugary cereals.

Before, During and After Driving Through a Tree

Waiting to Drive through a Tree

One of our stops ended up being a wait. We saw the signs for the Chandelier Tree and decided to drive through it. There were several others on the road that day that had the same thought. But not that many. And an hour later we were on our way.

All of these photos were taken while we waited in line for our turn to drive through a tree.

Practicing posing on the hood of the car. There is a photo of Marc's maternal grandparents in front of their car in front of the Chandelier Tree so he was practicing posing for his own shot on a car in front of a giant tree.

Mendocino

When we drove in to Mendocino we all decided to use up one of our chances to get out of the car. It is amazing. And I haven't been that nervous in a long time. So windy and so many craggy rocks and a long way down to the water and all I kept imagining was one of my children falling to their death. We all lived and felt happy for the break from the car.

Redwoods

We were excited to be heading towards the redwood forest. But because of our stops along the way we ended up driving through the famous forest in the dark. This photo was taken during the day on the never-ending windy road that made most of us car sick. Or as Margo says "I have car sick."

Trespassing in a Walnut Grove

Along our way to Oregon we decided we would each get three chances to stop the car and get out and look around at something that caught our eye. We didn't even all use up our three chances and it still took us until 3 a.m. on our second day of driving to get to their house. Our first stop was Margo's choice. She saw this orchard and we pulled over to take a closer look. It was a walnut grove and very cool to wander through. We got a little further in and wondered if we should really be doing this when someone, the landowner, started yelling at us, wondering very loudly why we were on his private property. We quickly ran back to the car but not before Margo started crying because she felt like she was in trouble. We all were but I think she felt responsible.

I still don't know how to use my camera in strange lighting so these photos are highly edited in an attempt to rescue them.

North to Oregon

When we thought we would be in Oregon for the family reunion we planned to stay after with the Oregon Wilsons and visit them and their beautiful state/city. Since we ended up in CA for the reunion we weren't sure we would still go to Oregon after. But go we did. We drove north for another couple days and ended up in Oregon. Here are snapshots from the car.

Awards Night


At the end of every family reunion we give each other awards based on what we became famous for during our week together. This year we had hats to go with our awards, each one with a hand-drawn picture from Emma.